Cosby’s lawyers apparently filed the civil lawsuit in an attempt to delay that criminal case.
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The New York Times reported that Cosby’s attorneys have repeatedly accused the defendants of breaching an agreement in a previous civil suit brought by Constand over the alleged sexual assault, which was resolved out of court with a confidential settlement. It involves sexual assault accusations that are now at the center of a new criminal case against Cosby.
“(He’s thinking), ‘I paid her to be quiet, and now she’s not being quiet, so now I’m going to sue her, now I’m going to harass her, ‘” Walker said.
Cosby filed the lawsuit a day before a February 2 criminal court hearing that included testimony from Constand lawyer Dolores Troiani (troy-AHN’-ee). That deposition is now a key piece of evidence in the criminal case against him. Cosby also claims Constand gave an interview to the National Enquirer that published in January 2016, another alleged violation of the settlement.
Bill Cosby is suing a woman he is accused of sexually assaulting, along with her mother.
Representatives for Miss Constand have not commented on the latest legal twist.
“Andrea and [her mother] Gianna Constand, both citizens of Canada who are outside the jurisdictional reach of the Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, District Attorney, voluntarily participated in a 2015 re-investigation of Andrea Constand’s allegations against Mr. Cosby”, states the lawsuit filed Feb.1, but initially sealed by a judge. The 78-year-old entertainer could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
Constand originally went to law enforcement authorities in 2004 with allegations that after Cosby befriended her, and she resisted his sexual advances, Cosby gave her pills and wine and then proceeded towards sexual acts without her consent.
Cosby, who played Dr. Cliff Huxtable on “The Cosby Show” from 1984 to 1992 and has been married for decades, has denied the women’s accusations.
Bill Cosby is demanding that the accuser in his Pennsylvania criminal case repay a confidential sex-abuse settlement because she cooperated with police who reopened the case past year. Cosby said that violates the confidentiality agreement she signed to not talk about the case.
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Constand, a former director of operations for Temple University’s women’s basketball team, met Cosby in 2002 when, according to prosecution documents, she believed he sought her out to be a “mentor” and “sincere friend”. That decision not to prosecute, Castor implied, removed from Cosby the ability to claim his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination, thus forcing him to sit for a deposition under oath in the civil case over the course of four days between September 2005 and March 2006.
